News and Press Releases

Brooklyn Park man pleads guilty to health care fraud

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 9, 2012

MINNEAPOLIS—Today in federal court, a 51-year-old Brooklyn Park man pleaded guilty to executing a scheme to defraud Medicaid out of more than $500,000. Allwell Tam Inimgba pleaded guilty to one count of health care fraud. Inimgba, who was charged via an Information on September 21, 2012, entered his plea before United States District Judge David S. Doty.

In his plea agreement, Inimgba admitted that from January 2006 to March 2009, he executed a scheme to defraud Medicaid, a federal health benefit program, by billing Medicaid for services supposedly provided by Registered Nurses (“RNs”) that were not actually provided by RNs. Inimgba was the responsible billing party for Victory Home Care, Inc. (“Victory”), a home health care agency that provided, or purported to provide, RN services to Medicaid recipients. Inimgba billed Medicaid for more than 20,000 hours of services supposedly provided to various clients for RNs. Victory was paid more than $1,400,000 from Medicaid funds on those claims. Victory received approximately $513,734 in Medicaid funds on RN claims for which a RN did not provide care.

For his crimes, Inimgba faces a potential maximum penalty of ten years in federal prison for one count of health care fraud, as well as possible fines and forfeitures. Judge Doty will determine his sentence at a future hearing, yet to be scheduled.

This case is the result of an investigation by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services-Office of Inspector General, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Minnesota Department of Health, and the Minnesota Attorney General Office’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney David M. Genrich.

According to the Justice Department, health care fraud investigations have been growing, and the Department has formed a senior-level task force to tackle the problem nationwide. The Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team, represented by the Department of Justice and Health and Human Services, will look at how to share more effectively real-time intelligence data on health care fraud patterns as well as critical information about health care services, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices. In 2008, the Justice Department filed criminal charges in 502 health care fraud cases involving 797 defendants.

In Minnesota, the U.S. Attorney’s Office is also participating in a task force with the Minnesota Attorney General Office’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit that focuses on home health care fraud. That task force includes the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services-Office of Inspector General, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service, and other federal, State and local law enforcement partners.